Ruben Navarrette: Christie’s helping hand

Is it possible that the winning ticket for Republicans in 2016 was on display during the New Jersey gubernatorial campaign? The pairing has a nice ring to it: Christie-Martinez.

Having been elected the first female governor of New Mexico and the first Latina governor of any state, Susana Martinez must be accustomed to racking up impressive titles. And while campaigning in the Garden State for a fellow Republican governor, she may have staked a claim to another one — kingmaker.

Gov. Chris Christie, who cruised to re-election last week with 60 percent of the vote, made a point of getting out of the GOP’s comfort zone and going after voters who typically don’t vote for Republicans. In contrast to Mitt Romney’s pitiful strategy of writing off “47 percent” of Americans as too dependent on government largesse to even consider voting Republican, Christie pursued every vote.

This includes Hispanics, which is probably why Christie invited Martinez to New Jersey to campaign with him. News outlets have reported that it was the only such offer he made to any out-of-state elected official during the campaign.

What a smart choice. Like Christie, the 54-year-old Martinez is amazingly popular in her state. According to a recent poll of New Mexico voters, Martinez’s approval rating is a staggering 66 percent — which includes high marks from 64 percent of independents and 44 percent of Democrats. She is even more popular among Hispanics, including many who are lifelong Democrats.

And, like Christie, Martinez has three tremendous assets: her authenticity, her willingness to tackle controversial issues, her ability to relate to everyday folks. All of these things have paid dividends in the Land of Enchantment, and they could pay off on the national stage as well.

In New Jersey, the two governors did eight campaign stops together, including one in the heavily Hispanic enclave of Union City. According to the 2010 Census, 85 percent of that city’s residents are Hispanic, which is the highest percentage of any municipality in New Jersey. This is not exactly friendly territory for the GOP; about 65 percent of the voters in Union City are registered Democrats. Martinez showed up, worked the crowd, and sprinkled in some Spanish, which she speaks flawlessly, having grown up in El Paso, and lived much of her life in southern New Mexico — a part of the country where they take seriously the need to preserve one’s culture and language.

Both Martinez and Christie have been vocally critical of their party’s boneheaded and mean-spirited approach to the immigration issue, and both have expressed support for a comprehensive reform that combines border security with a path to citizenship for the undocumented.

And for those on the right who maintain that any plan that allows illegal immigrants to remain in the United States would weaken the rule of law, let’s remember that these are two former prosecutors we’re talking about. Christie is a former U.S. attorney, and Martinez is a former district attorney.

In her remarks, Martinez looked past immigration and focused instead on what is for many Hispanics the No. 1 issue facing their community: education.

Christie has said that in his second term, he wants to follow the lead of states such as Florida and bring school choice to New Jersey. This will inflame Democratic-leaning teachers unions that are comfortable with the status quo, a powerful constituency that Christie has already tangled with over other reforms. But, at the same time, he is likely to find support for his crusade among Hispanics, who want better schools, greater accountability and more options. Many of them have started to figure out that the mostly non-Hispanic teachers unions that claim to have their best interests at heart really only care about protecting their own interests.

Martinez seized on that theme.

“Here in New Jersey,” Martinez told the mostly Hispanic crowd about Christie, “it is important for him to fight for the little ones.”

Here’s the thing about Hispanics. If you fight for them, they’ll fight for you.

The result? According to exit polls, at a time when Republicans are delighted if they can get as much as 35 percent of the Hispanic vote, Christie got 50 percent.

If you missed the chance to see this impressive tag team in action, don’t despair. When the 2016 campaign unfolds, you might catch a repeat performance.

Navarrette is a Carlsbad-based columnist syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group. His email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.